The concept is conversation-as-portraiture. Elvis talked to 20 prominent black Americans, including Toni Morrison, Colin Powell, Russell Simmons and Vernon Jordan. (Complete list is here.) Then Elvis and his questions were edited out, leaving only the subjects... filmed against a simple backdrop.

It’s living, breathing oral history.

HBO has picked up “The Black List,” and plans a theatrical release later in 2008.

Hat-tip to Terry Glover, who blogged about “The Black List” for EbonyJet.com. He interviewed Elvis Mitchell and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders together at Sundance.

Slash is the first one interviewed, probably because they wanted to make a statement on what black is.

Slash said something along the lines of look, it's pretty common I'm half-black. People would come up to him all the time an talk to him about it. Spot the black man. The small number of us here in Utah at Sundance do it!

Seriously thought, Slash said he had no problem being in G&R till Axl wrote that song with the racist and homophobic stuff in it, then had to raise the red flag and saw he wasn't comfortable with it.